What’s in a name?

/ Katie

Lately, Graham and I have been talking extensively about what we want to name our Baby Girl, because cute as it is, she can’t just be “Baby Girl” forever. And y’all, it’s so hard.

Funny story: I was born six weeks early, and my parents hadn’t decided on my name yet. They’d gone back and forth on several different choices, and just couldn’t seem to agree. Finally, it came down to it, and they were unexpectedly out of time. My mom wanted just “Katie.” My dad said I’d want a more mature name as I got older, and suggested “Kathryn.” Kathryn stuck, but I’ve been Katie my whole life. When someone calls me Kathryn, I genuinely have no idea who they’re talking to. I’ve missed more than one question at school, and sat awkwardly several times in doctor’s offices as they call me back over and over again. To be clear, I’m fine with the name Kathryn, and I like the spelling my parents chose. But my name is Katie. It always has been.

And that’s how it should be, right? Your name just fits. But how are we supposed to get there?

I won’t share them here, because then it’ll be a fun surprise, but we’ve narrowed our list down to two names. I don’t know which one we’ll choose. We use them every day, just to see if one feels better than the other. We like them both. Which one, though, is HER name? Which one will she connect with?

I’m probably overthinking this.

But then, am I?

Unless she decides to change her name when she’s older – which would be fine, since it’s her name and her life – we get one chance to get this right. I don’t want to let her down.

28 thoughts on “What’s in a name?”

  1. With our second son we, too, had it narrowed down to two names before his birth. It wasn’t until I saw him that I settled on his name, Tyler. It just felt right. You’ll know when you see her 🙂

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  2. You are such a hoot at times, Kathryn aka Katie. (Then there is Princess Catherine who cannot get people to call her that and she will be Princess Kate forever no doubt, but maybe she will at least be Queen Catherine eventually). But seriously, it is true that you should think carefully what you name a child. Names I have truly known in-person include the Bean family, who named their son Pinto, and the Blue family who named their son Denim, and the mother who craved Coca Cola while pregnant and named her daughter Kokola, and Koko always said that it was “unfortunate.”

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  4. Funny little story: My youngest son was supposed to be named Joshua. I even had a blanket with his name on it. Well right after I delivered him and we were all sitting in the hospital, my mom picks up my son and called him Matthew. I looked at her and said “mom his name is Joshua ” well she looks at me and says that he doesn’t look like a Joshua, he looks like a Matthew. And here we are 14 years later…..I took my moms advice and I honestly couldn’t picture him being a Joshua. He is and always will be Matthew 😁 p.s. its a good thing my mom “changed” his name before the nurse came in to do the birth certificate lol

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  7. I took 4 days to name one of mine and my daughter took nearly 6 weeks. Sit with her, look in her eyes and you’ll know when you see her unless of course you and your husband don’t agree on the names which was the case with my daughter and husband. It was a hot topic for 9 mo. with my girls but alas, they have names. Can’t wait to hear what you name her.
    I heard this name before.. don’t think I’d ever heard it before. but I liked it.

    Janae: This elegant given name, pronounced “Jah-nay,” means “God is gracious” or “God has answered.” These wonderful sentiments are surely felt by new parents who may wish to celebrate their faith with a beautiful name for baby.May 16, 2023
    ❤️

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